[I rather like The Lord's Prayer as well. My objection to saying it in meetings is that it's Christian, therefore clearly religious as well as exclusionary. I was raised Catholic and have grown to be more of an eclectic spiritually, so it's not a personal thing for me. It just seems that I might be put off if I were Buddhist or Muslim or Jewish... And I do take that personally, if that makes sense
This makes sense to me completely, and I relate to everything you’ve just said.
Though, I’m not a fan of the Lord’s Prayer. The serenity prayer, however; is brilliant, and makes sense to me on a daily basis.
I’m on the west coast so maybe it’s just different here....but it’s all handholding plus the serenity prayer at the end at every meeting I attended. No Lord’s Prayer at all, and I’ve gone to different meetings here and there for years and years.
It’s not really a part of AA in my book. How about “take what you need and leave the rest?” That part can stay.
I don’t know. The philosophy and rules and sponsorship weren’t why I went, I went to not feel alone. I’d go when feeling desperate in myself, and just wanted to be around other live human beings with alcoholism, talking about their alcoholism in all sorts of ways. That part was healing for me.